275/365: Ghosts in Beelitz

275/365: Ghosts in Beelitz, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

October 2nd

I have a friend in Berlin who has a predicament; she is very fond of abandoned places, and yet can find no one among her circle of acquaintances with the same appreciation for them. Fortunately, Berlin and Łódź are only a train ride away, and what are weekends for?

She took me to Beelitz, a foresty place, with a sprawling sanatorium among the trees. Beelitz Heilstätten was a tuberculosis hospital built in 1898. During WWI it was converted into a general military hospital, then later in 1945 the Soviets took over it and held it well after the Reunification.

Parts of the hospital are still in use.

But when the Soviets withdrew, most of the sixty buildings that make up the complex were abandoned and are still empty today.

Incidentally, it was Reunification Day on the day we visited Beelitz.

I want to go back again. We did not have the pluck to break into the larger buildings, the operating theatre in particular, and there are photos to be taken there.